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Brooklyn-Based Coffee Roaster Opens 'Brew School' in West Village

By Danielle Tcholakian | November 20, 2014 11:41am | Updated on November 21, 2014 4:38pm
 The new Toby's Estate Coffee in the West Village will offer one-on-one "latte art" lessons.
The new Toby's Estate Coffee in the West Village will offer one-on-one "latte art" lessons.
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Facebook/Toby's Estate Coffee

WEST VILLAGE — At this coffee shop, patrons can learn to brew their own drinks.

Toby's Estate Coffee is opening its third location in the city on Charles Street, with a "brew school" that will teach the art of pouring the perfect espresso.

"We really felt that our next store would have to have some brew school that would be open to the public," explained one of Toby's owners, Amber Jacobsen. "We found a place on Hudson street which fell through, then Bowery, then happened upon this very old, ugly bodega in the West Village and we were like, 'This is it.'"

The new Toby's sits in a landmarked 1920s artist's studio at 44 Charles St., and will house the first permanent Toby's Brew School, dubbed The Brew Parlor. The Brooklyn Toby's location has held classes and workshops, but the West Village location will be the first and only one to offer a standing series of classes on brewing techniques, as well as one-on-one lessons on espresso and "latte art."

Classes currently offered in Brooklyn include a $35 session on home brewing.

Customers of the new cafe will be able to sit and chat in chairs along a counter next to the window or on a plush couch tucked into a nook in the white-painted exposed brick wall.

Toby's opened its flagship location in 2010 on North Sixth Street in Williamsburg, where all of Toby's coffee is roasted and hand-packed. Access to the brew classes offered there was limited because the teaching space is also used for training new roasters.

The Charles Street Toby's will also offer brunch and breakfast food through partnerships with different local bakers, Jacobsen said. The cafe has previously worked with Ovenly, Bien Cuit, Scratchbread and Roberta's.

The cafe officially opens on Saturday, but a soft opening on Friday will welcome locals for some simple cups of coffee.